Now better tasting!

April 11, 2007


Honeycomb - NOW BETTER!Our cereal is making a strange claim.

We just bought a box of Honeycomb cereal. Kraft foods has placed a new label on the front – Now Better Tasting!

Wait. Says who?

Who has decided that Honeycomb is truly “better tasting” than it used to be? What research have they done to back up this claim? What changes did they make?

I’m sure verbiage like this sells cereal all the time. The cereal industry has conducted plenty of focus groups on what to say and how to product their cereal.

So maybe I’m a cynic when I say, “If it’s better tasting now, what was wrong with it before?”

“Why wasn’t it the best it could be previously? And how did you quantify a subjective claim?”

So, with these questions in mind, I decided to ask. I went to kraft.com and sent an e-mail:

I have recently purchased a box of Honeycomb cereal. The box says “Now Better Tasting!” right on the front.

My question is this — how can you quantify “better tasting?” What research or changes were made to make Honeycomb “better tasting?” How can you account for personal taste on a cereal box?

I’m just a concerned customer wondering how accurate your cereal’s claims are.

Thanks,
Corey Vilhauer

Let’s see what they say. I want to know how they can make such an unquantifiable claim – to become so subjective in saying the cereal is now “better tasting.” It can’t be proven. I might not like it at all now.

Let’s see if this was an empty marketing ploy or a true-to-life statistic.

Tags: Advertising and Marketing, Annoyances, Random |

Comments

12 Responses to “Now better tasting!”

  1. Will on April 11th, 2007 938 am

    Corey, the real question is, does it taste better to YOU? Seriously. Do you personally find the claim to be accurate?

  2. Corey Vilhauer on April 11th, 2007 1017 am

    I can’t even tell the difference! To me, it tastes like Honeycomb cereal. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s why I’m curious how they came to this conclusion.

  3. Chris on April 11th, 2007 1230 pm

    Maybe the Malt-O-Meal equivalent changed their ingredients and doesn’t taste the same as Honeycombs. So now it’s better tasting…compared to the generic crap.

    OR MAYBE THE BOX ITSELF TASTES BETTER? Try eating the box, maybe it’s made of Honeycombs also.

  4. Deane on April 11th, 2007 341 pm

    This gets lumped in with “clinically proven.” I hate that phrase — I detest it.

    Does it mean proven in a clinic? What clinic? Where? By whom? To do what? Certified by what authority?

    Is my basement a clinic? If so, then I’m clinically proven to be friggin’ awesome. Why? Because I said “clinically proven.” Prove me wrong.

  5. Corey Vilhauer on April 11th, 2007 447 pm

    I’m clinically proven to be more friggin’ awesome than Deane. I did a poll and everything.

    -

    -

    (Poll was of 1 person, margin of error +/-90%)

  6. Will on April 11th, 2007 1025 pm

    Deane, if “clinically proven” irks you, you must really go nuts over “proprietary blend.” Maybe that’s why Honeycomb tastes so much better, because of a proprietary blend of ingredients that they can’t reveal, or else it would no longer be a proprietary blend…

  7. Christian on April 17th, 2007 434 am

    no way i cant stand the new honeycombs. I just finished eating a bowl and omg. it friggin cut my mouth into piece and hurt my throat. you can only eat it normally if the entire comb is soggy or it will cut you. im so disappointed, but honeycombs have never betrayed me before so they obviously did something

  8. Steve G. on April 30th, 2007 140 pm

    This is to distance the cereal from the “Sensible Solution” taste that they rolled out last December and tasted horrible. Enough customers complained, so they had to tweak it.

    The purple “better tasting” sign tells us that this box is not that lousy tasting experiment on the shelves a month ago.

    I know. They sent me a free box with a letter explaining this.

  9. JERRY DECLT on September 11th, 2007 246 pm

    FOR A WHILE HONEYCOMBS ACTUALLY DID TASTE DIFFERENT. LIKE IT WAS MISSING SOMETHING. I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO THOUGHT THAT. BUT I RECENTLY BOUGHT ANOTHER BOX BECAUSE THEY WERE 5 for $10. IT SAID “BETTER TASTING” ON THE BOX AND SURE ENOUGH. IT DID TASTE BETTER. BETTER THEN IT DID FOR THAT FEW MONTH PERIOD. NOW IT TASE LIKE IT USED TO. SO YES, IT IS BETTER TASTING. IT IS KIND OF LIKE THE “NEW COKE” THING. THAT WENT TO HELL AND NOW COKE IS “CLASSIC” IT WAS JUST A WAY TO MARKET THE CEREAL.

  10. will on October 25th, 2007 1050 am

    JERRY! I have been saying the EXACT same thing, basically that they pulled a coke classic on us and no one has been listening to me. I even stopped eating honey comb when i noticed the strange difference but when they came out with “now better tasting” it was like they where talking to me and all they did was bring but the good old taste!

  11. Blade on November 19th, 2007 603 pm

    “better tasting” probably just means they added more sugar to it, lol.

  12. Clarence on March 17th, 2008 622 am

    Better tasting is like what a few others mentioned above.

    Honey Comb changed their cereal in 2006 to something that looked like the honeycomb in shape but had a different texture to it and it tasted god awful. I too avoided buying Honeycomb to just this year, and I’m glad to find that it taste like the original once again. :)

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